Greetings, new member from Germany

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Greetings!

I have been reading these forums for quite some time now, but since my psychiatrist told me it would be a good idea to socialize a little with my "peers" (whatever he means by that, since I don't really consider people with autism disorders to be a kind of peer-group), I'll try and introduce myself and maybe participate a little if you won't mind.

So here goes:

My name is Paul, I'm currently located in Berlin, Germany, and 24 years of age. I go to college (in my finals at the moment), and have been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome when I was 22 (since I'll be 25 next month, it's about 3 years ago). Since I was always a rather bright guy and good at school without doing too much ( so neither my teahcers nor my parents - both teachers by the way - ever had reason to believe there was something wrong with my apart from being a loner and just a little odd), I initiated seeing a qualified MD myself after seeing a BBC report on autism and Asperger's on TV, and thought that most of the symptoms they were showing described me, my personality and my struggles perfectly. After being falsly diagnosed with and treated for depression (which I never believed to be true, and the therapies were to no effect, little wonder), I finally was able to see an expert, and after some very lengthy tests, I was diagnosed with, to quote my doc, "one of the most archetypical manifestations of asperger's" he has ever seen. And boy, was it a relief to hear that there is a reason for me being different, for having trouble in so many social aspects in my life, that there is something that just isn't my fault. Not that I'd ever use my Asperger's as an excuse for failing at anything, but it just feels good to know that there is a reason for me being like I am, and that there is little I can do to change some of those things. Don't really know how to describe it, but I guess most of you people know what I am talking about.

I guess I took enough of your precious time reading my "story", so I'll just end it here and see how it goes from there.

Kindest regards!

Paul

Hi Paul, I'm also new around here. I was also misdiagnosed with depression (OCD and ADHD as well), the doc gave me some medications for it but I stopped taking them and made the correct decision in doing so. I'm almost certain that I have it but not sure yet and your case makes me want to go with a professional to find out if I do.

Anyways, welcome!

Much obliged!

For me, the decission to try to find a real expert was when one of the neurologists was actively trying to talk me into accepting my condition as caused by depression, telling me I interpreted my feelings wrong and how I should relate to them in a way that fit his diagnosis. As a rule of thumb: If you go to any kind of doctor and tell him about your fear of having asperger's, and he has to take a book from his shelf to look it up, you are pretty much guaranteed to get a false diagnosis. My impression is that most doctors I went to seemed to be too proud of their education and experience to admit that they did not have enough expertise with autism in order to make a proper diagnosis. This is just my personal experience. My current psychiatrist who made the diagnosis, is an expressed expert in the field of autism, and you should not settle with anything less. This may sound a little bit like "I didn't like the diagnosis because it was not what I expected, so I just go and see a different doctor until I get the result I wanted", but at that time, I did not know that so few psychiatrists, neurologists and psychologists had enough experience with that sort of thing.

Welcome to WrongPlanet.

It's good to see that you got the correct diagnosis in the end.

Welcome!